How do I help my child with foundational reading skills?

Language is the foundation for reading, and one of the most important early skills children need is understanding how words are made up of sounds. When children can hear and play with the individual sounds in words, they are building a key skill needed to learn how to read. This important skill is called phonemic awareness.

What is Phonemic Awareness?

Phonemic awareness is the ability to hear, identify, and work with individual sounds—called phonemes—in spoken words. This includes skills like:

• Blending sounds together to make a word

• Segmenting a word into its individual sounds

• Manipulating sounds by adding, deleting, or changing them

For example:

• The word "cat" has three phonemes: /c/ /a/ /t/

• The word "thin" also has three phonemes: /th/ /i/ /n/

Notice how /th/ is just one sound (one phoneme), even though it’s made up of two letters.

Playing with Sounds: Simple Games to Try

You can help your child develop phonemic awareness through fun and simple sound games—no materials needed!

Game 1: Sound Stretching
Say a word slowly, stretching out each sound:
“/c/ /a/ /t/ – What word is that?”
Your child listens and blends the sounds to say: "cat".

Game 2: Sound Substitution
Ask your child to change one sound in a word:

• “If I take the /c/ away from cat and put in a /h/, what word do I get?” → "hat"

• “If I take away the /c/ in cat, what word is left?” → "at"

• “What if I change the last sound in cat to /p/? What’s the new word?” → "cap"

• “Now add an /l/ after the /c/ in cap. What word do you get?” → "clap"

These little changes help children understand how sounds work in words—an essential pre-reading skill that also supports spelling and writing later on.

Make it Part of Your Day

The best part? These games can be played anywhere—in the car, at the grocery store, or during bath time. No books or supplies needed—just your voice and a bit of playful creativity.

So go ahead, have fun playing with phonemes!
/H/ /a/ /v/ – /f/ /u/ /n/!